Harry woke up the next morning feeling particularly well rested, and immediately thought of his and Sirius's attempts at the first part of Occlumency. For several days, Harry had successfully cleared his mind. Yes, there had been the one day he'd been too tired to attempt it, with the nightmare, but during the nights he had made a solid attempt, Harry knew he had done well.

This made him wonder when, or indeed if, he and Sirius would embark on the second part of Occlumecy. Not that Harry was looking forward to it. He knew that how Snape had treated his lessons had been too aggressive for his skill set (or complete lack thereof, since he was being completely honest with himself), but hadn't Sirius and Remus had said that what Snape had done by trying to enter his mind hadn't been entirely wrong-just highly premature?

Harry knew that if he was being honest with himself, he would have preferred to remain at this stage indefinitely. However, he was all too aware that he had only six weeks left of his summer holidays. Even if he remained successful at practice clearing his mind before bed, would be be ready if Snape tried a nonverbal attack? Granted, that was if he returned to Hogwarts, but even if he wasn't teaching Potions (or not the NEWT class, anyway) he might still reside at the castle. In any case, it was possible that Slughorn would only be teaching, and not act as the head of Slytherin.

It wasn't just Snape. Dumbledore had told him that Voldemort hadn't been able to touch Harry's mind when it had been consumed with fear for Sirius at the Ministry. That didn't mean he wouldn't try again. In fact, he might very well. Voldemort wouldn't back down from a fight just because he failed once.

With all this unsettled, Harry had to acknowledge that he had six weeks to become at least fairly adequate at blocking a mind invasion attempt. Since he wasn't about to ask Snape to start up lessons, this left two people. Sirius, or maybe Remus Lupin. Both knew how to do a mind invasion, anyway.

While Harry would have rather given away his invisibility cloak to Dudley than have his godfather or favorite teacher prying around in his mind, he knew that they would go a lot easier on him than Snape. Also, they wouldn't relish the scenes from his childhood of Ripper nearly mauling him, or Dudley and his gang stuffing his head down the school toilets.

Bracing himself, Harry decided to bring up the subject with Sirius. He was there all the time, after all.

His sleeping godfather chose that moment to roll over on top of him, nearly depriving him of oxygen. Harry squirmed away.

"Get off!" he grumbled, clutching his stomach.

Sirius opened his eyes. "Good morning to you too, pup."

Harry felt his face turn hot. "Sorry. It was just...er, you sorta rolled over on top of my stomach."

It was Sirius's turn to redden. "In that case, a perfectly reasonable reaction. Sorry, pup."

He put his arms around Harry's shoulders, and Harry leaned into his godfather happily.

"I'll miss this when you go back to school," Sirius said, with a laugh. "How about you sneak me in under your invisibility cloak?"

"How'd you eat?" Harry wondered, pretty sure Sirius was teasing, but still playing along.

"Easy," Sirius chortled. "I'd alert the house elves. They'd bring me food when you are in class."

"And, er, shower and stuff?"

Sirius snorted. "Also, pup, use the Gryffindor toilets when you are in class."

"Well, you know, I would be away from the Gryffindor tower most of the time. What would you do for fun? Just hide out in the common room all the time?" Harry asked, with a grin.

"Partly. When I am not pranking Slytherins, especially that Draco Malfoy, anyway," Sirius explained.

It was almost worth considering. "What about doing stuff for the Order?"

Dumbledore had told Sirius he could take a more active role, what with being cleared. Harry knew that Sirius was looking forward to not staying cooped up at Grimmauld Place.

"You come first. Especially since I barely spent any time with you for nearly fifteen years." Sirius pulled the blankets a bit closer over them both. "And I could help you in your classes..."

Harry sighed, even as he curled closer to Sirius without any embarrassment. "I wish you could. I hate to think I won't see you again until Christmas... I will be coming back for that, right?"

Sirius peered at him. "Any reason why you wouldn't?"

Harry shrugged. "Until last year, I spent them at school. Because, well, the alternative..."

"Was the Dursleys." Sirius winced. "See what you mean, then. I wasn't unlike you, pup. I spent all my school holidays either at school or with your dad every year. My parents made me return home during the summer, though James always invited me over for a few weeks, and they couldn't refuse without appearing rude."

Recalling the memory of the previous night, as well as what Harry had heard and witnessed from Sirius, Harry thought his godfather's childhood easily rivaled his own.

"I always had a great time at school during the holidays, but I'd much rather be here with you," Harry answered.

"Good, then that's settled. Now, I know this is rather far off, but have you given any thought to where you'd like to spend your Easter holidays?" Sirius pressed.

Harry tried to hold in a sigh. "I'd love to come back here, too, but Sirius...the professors always assign us a ton of work. Not to mention that, if Hermione finally gets her way, we'll be studying for end of term exams as well as working all day during the whole holiday. It won't be much fun having me around if I'm just studying and writing essays and stuff, right?"

Sirius nodded. "I'll grant you that the Easter ones are no fun. That doesn't mean you'd need to stay at the castle the whole time to get your work done. In fact, I expect I could be of more help there. Not to mention, I'd give you loads of tricks for studying for exams. I don't want to pressure you, Harry, but I want you to think about it."

Harry grinned. "All right, then. Sign me up for the Easter holidays, too."

"Good. Now, as far as seeing you for the rest of the year, I'll be at all of your Quidditch games, and, don't forget that I can meet up with you when you go to Hogsmeade. I'll also buy you and Ron and Hermione tons of candy," Sirius added.

"You don't need to get us anything!" Harry protested.

"See, pup, you saying that just makes me want to do it more," Sirius said, with a laugh. "I'm not lying when I say you're the least spoiled kid I know."

Harry shrugged at his godfather's assessment. "Hard to act spoiled when you spend most of your life with the Dursleys. I'm just happy to live with someone who doesn't think I'm some wild animal covered in mud-on a good day."

"You did get a raw deal, there." Sirius's arms tightened around Harry, but it felt nice and secure rather than restraining. "If I hadn't gone after Wormtail..."

"It's okay."

Sirius shook his head. "It's not... but it's done with. I'm here now, I promise."

"Yeah, well, just don't die, okay?"

Sirius turned and stared Harry in the eyes. "I promise not to do anything reckless. How's that?"

Harry nodded, then let his head rest on Sirius's shoulders for a minute.

"Sirius?" he asked, a moment later.

"Yeah, pup?"

"I was thinking about Occlumency," he began. "I'm starting to get the hang of clearing my mind, I think, and if Snape or Voldemort try to get in...er..."

"You want to try the next part of it?"

His tone was level, but Harry could sense that he wasn't on board.

Not that Harry was, except he knew what was at stake. Voldemort might not be able to control him directly, but he could break in, could influence him. Sure, he had the mirror to talk to Sirius, but what if someone else was in danger? How was he to know what was real and what wasn't? And while the other adults could say that Harry wasn't responsible for that, it had been his dream that got Mr. Weasley to healers in time.

Harry nodded. "It's not so much that I want someone prying in my mind as I know what's at risk if I can't learn it." Facing Sirius, he added, "And even if Snape is on our side, I can't ask him to teach me again."

Sirius shook his head, suddenly looking fierce. "Nor should you. All right. Do you want me, or Remus to give it a try?"

"You," said Harry, quietly. "I trust both of you, but I know you better. And if you see mistakes I made..."

"I've made worse, trust me." Sirius nodded, then exhaled. He was silent for a few minutes, and almost absentmindedly began to run his hands over Harry's back in small circles.

He felt a bit like a cat being petted, but he didn't mind. Far from it.

"All right," Sirius finally spoke. "We'll do this, we have to agree to some rules."

"Do I have to agree before I hear what they are?"

"No, that wouldn't be right," Sirius answered, reassuringly.

"Okay, go ahead."

"First rule," Sirius began, still running circles over Harry's back, "is that we don't start until you've cleared your mind successfully for two weeks. And, so I know for sure, you'll be staying with me the whole time."

That sounded reasonable.

"Yeah...all right," said Harry.

Sirius smiled. "Next, you're going to be able to use the Pensieve to keep me from anything you want to keep private. You can use your discretion on that. Could be most of your childhood, or just stuff that you wouldn't want anymore to know. It's up to you."

Harry felt warmth at Sirius's concern. "Okay," he murmured.

"Right. Also, we won't do it more than once a week." As Harry turned, open mouthed, Sirius added, more sternly than Harry had ever heard his godfather address him, "Once a week, at most. At least, to start. Even Snape only forced you to have lessons once a week. You know, better than me, how violating it is to have someone pry through your mind. I will be as gentle as I can, but the very act is going to be..." Sirius trailed off. "I will only use legilimency on you because I agree that you need to improve your Occlumency skills, but I won't hurt you any more than I have to. Moreover, you'll need time to heal."

Harry nodded, feeling a lump in his throat. He remembered what it had been like.

"If I think you're not ready one day, we'll postpone it. Again, I want it to be as easy for you as possible, puppy," Sirius reiterated.

Harry nodded again.

"We'll start off slowly. I won't attack you several times in one lesson. Once, maybe twice. We can build up on your abilities. Even if it's only fifteen minutes a week, I don't want you to think that it needs to be more," Sirius instructed.

"Okay," Harry whispered.

"Last of all, for now anyway, I want you to do what I say to take care of yourself after each...lesson, for lack of a better term. That might mean chocolate, or a long hot shower, or I might give you an extra long foot or back massage. You'll follow my instructions, to the letter, to help you recover. Even if you think it's over the top," Sirius said, firmly. "Are we in agreement?"

Harry nodded once more. "Yes."

"Good pup." Sirius pulled Harry into another long hug. "I am extremely proud of you, Harry. Now, say we have some breakfast?"

"That sounds great. I'm starving!"

Next up:

Happy birthday, Harry! Sirius throws him his first ever birthday party. Well, that Harry can remember, anyway.